| Fun in the Upper Peninsula |
[Aug. 11th, 2008|12:27 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Rakes | ] |
 Ah, the wonder of Michigan's Upper Peninsula; a place where the rich can go to break in their Eddie Bauer zip-off cargo shorts and the poor can go to open up smoked fish stands with attached gift shops. It's a place where natural beauty meets kitsch, where people eat pasties like they're about to go out of style, and where basically everything cool about living in Michigan converges into one big wilderness that the majority of the state's residents never even visit.
I've been going to the U.P. nearly every summer for as long as I can remember. I've been everywhere from Ontonagon to Copper Harbor, and I've seen sights that easily rival Niagara Falls and The Grand Canyon as far as aesthetic majesty and splendor are concerned. Of course, for every glorious bit of nature there is up there, there's a hundred decrepit shacks that people are forced to live in because of the near-stagnant economy, but there's no reason we can't just do like we do with Detroit and sort of turn the other way.
 Sadly I missed the Humongous Fungus Festival in Crystal Falls, but I was still able to enjoy some other neat things. Wildlife was out in full effect, in the forms of deer, toads, beavers, snakes, fishers, swans, and even a few loons, and I can attest to the fact that there is a very healthy mosquito population as well. One other wildlife triumph came in the form of a restaurant closure near Silver City, where they used to toss food out near the dumpsters to draw out bears for people to watch.
I remember seeing this as a kid once. We stopped to get ice cream, and before we knew it there were a bunch of cars lined up in front of this caution tape strung from a post to the restaurant's side. A black bear came out and was rummaging through the trash, and people were taking pictures and having a gay old time, until the bear decided to cross the caution tape (apparently wild bears have no respect for man-made boundaries). Long story short, the bear climbed into some guy's pickup bed and scratched the hell out of the liner. I'm actually surprised that the place just closed down.
 The Seney Wildlife Refuge was a blast as always, despite the grumpy old ladies working (or possibly volunteering) there. Actually, a lot of the aforementioned animals were spotted either here or in the Porcupine Mountains. They have a few trails that are best hiked early, before the blackflies and things come out, and a cool scenic drive where you can check out the marshland and get tailgated by idiots in GMCs that don't seem to understand the leisurely nature of a scenic drive.
But as everyone knows, the main ingredient of any good trip is an unexpected surprise. This year it came in the form of a botched hotel reservation which led us to a stay at the King Copper Motel in Copper Harbor. But let's be fair about this. First, the positives: The King Copper Motel is right along the shore of Lake Superior, and it is within walking distance of the half-mile 'downtown' area of Copper Harbor. Alright, now the negatives: The King Copper Motel looks almost exactly like the Bates Motel (see camera phone pictorial below). There is a half-inch between the bottom of the rooms' front doors and the ground, which allows for a spectacular array of spiders and things to scuttle in and out at their convenience. Oh, but they do have Showtime. Forgot to add that to the plus column...
    Of course, the King Copper Motel is not the only place you can go in the U.P. for an eventful night's rest. Want to look like a pedophile, for instance? Well, look no further than room 127 at the AmericInn in Silver City. This room features all the amenities of home, PLUS a window that looks out over the INDOOR POOL AREA. (Yes, the neighboring photo was taken from my bedside chair.) If you haven't had this experience, let me tell you, there's nothing quite like opening the curtains to see a little boy swimming merrily in a hotel pool, then looking up to his terrified mother, who is wondering why some stranger wearing gym shorts is looking through a glass window at her child. But in retrospect, that's all more fodder for a good vacation story, and part of the fun of the U.P. is that you really don't know what you're getting yourself into until you go. It's kind of like a gentler, northern version of Deliverance, only the yuppies outnumber the locals and hardly anyone ever gets sodomized. But boy, it sure is perrrty. |
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ray_valentino's journal
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